


Midnight Helios

by Eclipse_Tyrant



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: 100 Percent Awesome, AU, Alternate Universe, Anteverse, Badass Robot, Depressing, Depression, Drift Bond, Drift Compatibility, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gay Romance, Gen, Giant Robots, Giant monsters, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I hope, Jaeger Pilots, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Kaiju (Pacific Rim), Kaiju Blue, Loss, M/M, Pacific Rim: Uprising is not canon here, Precursors, Survivor Guilt, The Breach - Freeform, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclipse_Tyrant/pseuds/Eclipse_Tyrant
Summary: Ten years after the Breach reopens, a new generation of Jaeger pilots takes up the torch. Although the Breach is unstable, and currently lacks the capacity to increase the Precursor assault, Kaiju still emerge to devastate mankind.And despite their increased technology, a Jaeger Pilot is not expected to see retirement.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character





	1. Chapter 1

**Ten Years After Breach Resurgence**

“Wake up, sleepyhead!” Adam shouted. “Time to go fishing!”

Leonidas yawned, and dropped off the bed. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he grabbed a sweater off a hook and pulled it on.

“By the God of all that’s unholy, what time is it?” Leo muttered.

“Midnight,” Adam said with a smirk. “We’re facing Kaiju Kraken,” he added. Leo groaned as Adam gave him a peck on the cheek.

“I was hoping Mako was just dragging us out for training,” he said as they suited up.

***  
Midnight Helios waded into the waters of Seattle, black armor almost making it vanish into the night. Enormous legs strode forward, tens of thousands of tons of metal plowing through the waves.

“We’re picking it up on radar,” Adam remarked. “Cat. 4, you said?”

“That’s right,” Mako replied over comms. “Remember, quick and easy.”  
“Right,” Leo said.

The waters began to glow a faint blue in the distance, the wake of a Kaiju rapidly approaching. Helios broadened its stance, waist-deep in the water.   
“Contact in five… four… three… two… on-“ Adam was interrupted by Kraken erupting from the sea. Dozens of bioluminescent tendrils, like an anemone, rippled around its powerful arms and small head. The lower body was still underwater, but the motion of a tail could be seen.

Adam and Leo moved as one, a black-and-gold fist smashing into Kraken’s face. The beast roared, talons lashing out and slashing the Jaeger’s hull. Then its tendrils coiled around Helios. As the Jaeger struggled, caustic blue oozed from the tentacles, dissolving the outer armor. Midnight Helios’s right arm was caught in the Kaiju’s jaws, car-sized fangs crushing through reinforced alloy as if it were foil.

“Shit! Get ready to fire, babe!” Adam shouted, before activating the left Plasmacaster. Before he could fire, however, the Kaiju heaved the Jaeger over its head and threw it towards the city.

Seconds before it hit the streets, Leo’s vision went black.

***

Leo slowly opened his eyes.

The ceiling above him was white tile. His right arm and chest felt constricted, and his throat was dry.

He turned, wincing in pain, and saw Mako Mori. The Marshal had been famed for her service in the first War. She and Raleigh Becket had killed multiple Kaiju, including one in the upper atmosphere. Leo wondered how badly he’d screwed up.

“Here,” she said, giving him a glass of water. He eagerly drank the glass dry, and set it down.

“What happened?” He asked.

“You blacked out when Midnight Helios hit the city, breaking the Drift. Adam Jackson was forced to pilot the Jaeger solo,” she said quietly.

“No…” he whispered.

“He piloted for over an hour, successfully killing the Kaiju. When we retrieved the Jaeger, he seemed fine. He died of an aneurysm only a few hours ago.”

Leo wanted to scream ‘ _you’re lying_ ’. He wanted to rage and howl. But all he felt was a hollow pain. Adam was dead. He knew he shouldn’t blame himself. He knew that it was nobody’s fault.

He still felt responsible.

Leo sobbed quietly, tears splashing the hospital blankets. Mako shifted.

“I know what you’re feeling. You know I served with Raleigh. He saved my life during the assault on the Breach. And when he was in the hospital, dying of cancer, he told me something I’ve never forgotten. He said, ‘Remember this: you need to keep moving forward. Every mistake you make, don’t dwell on it. You’ll drive yourself nuts. Look to the present, and make the decision you won’t regret.’

She handed Adam’s wallet to Leo.

“If you want to leave the PPDC, call me. I’ll arrange your departure myself, and you’ll receive all survival benefits and the insurance payout. But if you want to stay, give me a call. I won’t force you.”

She stood, saluted him, and left.

Leo opened Adam’s wallet. There was his driver’s license, PPDC card, debit card and several photos. He picked out the photos, and laid them out. There was the press picture from their early days, when they were barely old enough to begin driving. He smiled slightly, remembering Adam’s ridiculous crewcut from those days. Then there was the picture of the two at the dedication party for Hammer Down, both drunk as skunks. Another set of photos captured their excursion to Disneyland after a grueling five-hour fight with the Cat. 5 Megamouth, and the two other Jaegers: Dragon Nebula and Hammer Down. They’d been awarded lifetime access to all Disneyland parks (during operating hours, and assuming they didn’t cause trouble).

Leo recalled Adam’s positivity. Even in the roughest fights they’d ever faced, he’d joked and strutted his way to victory. Adam had always been the genius, the tactician, the ace. Leo had only been in the cockpit because the chipheads still hadn’t figured out how to make a one-man Jaeger. He wondered if he’d be missed. He still had family in Montana. Why not retire? It was better than Adam would get.

But what would Adam have done?

Leo sat there, thinking. What would he have done? He would have continued on. Adam would never have given up.

He never _had_ given up.

Leonidas’s mind was made up. He grabbed his phone off the bedside table with his bandaged right hand.

“Mako? I’m staying with the program.”


	2. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Our Young Protagonist Meets a Prospective Drift Partner

**Seattle Shatterdome**

**Base of Pentecost Annihilator, Midnight Helios, Iron Eagle and Hammer Down**

The helicopter settled to the concrete platform with barely a jolt, rotors slowing. It had just rained, the smell of wet concrete and fuel permeating the atmosphere. Through the looming clouds, shafts of golden sunlight struck the geometric megastructure that was the Shatterdome. Within its halls four of the greatest weapons of mankind loomed, ready to sally out and face down the relentless Kaiju.

From the chopper’s door, a young man stepped out. Intelligent blue eyes took note of the placement of railgun and defensive fortifications, admiring the majesty inherent to this cathedral. It was like nothing he had ever seen. A Japanese woman, in her late forties or so, stood with a closed umbrella slung over her shoulder. He saluted, and she responded in kind. He noted the dyed blue tips of her hair.

“David Antrobus, I presume?” She asked as she extended her hand. David nodded, and returned her grip.

“That’s correct,” he said with a friendly smile. “Would it be impolite to ask where the mess is?”

Mako smiled.

“After the tour, you’ll know all you need to know.”

  
***

The tour wound through the vast hanger bays, and the four Jaegers residing within.

There was Iron Eagle, a broad and heavy Mark 4 Jaeger. It was equipped with no weapons save for a chest mount of anti-Kaiju missiles and its two fists, instead focusing on packing more armor and strength into its bulky, linebacker frame. A red eagle was emblazoned on the plates of the chest, symbolic of its country of origin (the United States). Its Conn-Pod was sunken into the shoulders, improving defense at the cost of sight, and featured a prominent chin piece as well.

Next was Hammer Down, a scarlet Mark 5 Jaeger equipped with an oversized, telescoping hammer. It was built for area control, a support Jaeger designed to batter Kaiju at range before another Jaeger could step in for the kill. Aside from that, it was lightly armored to reduce the strain on its frame, and the pack on its back supplied fuel to power the hammer’s secondary function: frying a Kaiju with lightning. If it struck the right spot, it could drop a Kaiju in one hit. That was, however, unlikely at best.

Pentecost Annihilator, a Mark 6, was more widely famed than almost any other. Named for the legendary Marshal who had sacrificed his life to give Gypsy Danger more time, it was sleek and durable, with a chrome silver chassis and two superheated chainswords. Its body was built for speed and strength, and had outran and out punched almost every Kaiju it had ever faced. The biggest weakness it had was its lack of endurance compared to other, older Jaegers.

And finally, the Mark 5 Midnight Helios. A gleaming black Jaeger with golden highlights, Helios was a supreme Jack-of-All-Trades. What she lacked in one field, she made up for in another. A Thermal Lance was mounted to the right arm, a Plasmacaster in the left, and the fingers of each hand were composed of a hard, yet brittle, golden alloy. The bones of the machine were designed to absorb hits and spring right back, and her punches channeled all her might into them. Her legs were digitigrade, in order to improve maneuverability, and the angular Conn-Pod was reminiscent of Striker Eureka or Tacit Ronin more than Gypsy Danger’s rounded helm.

And David would, God willing, be one of its Rangers.

***

The rest of the tour pointed out the locations of the mess hall, recreation rooms, barracks and more. Before long, they reached the Dueling Room.  
Mako gestured for him to follow her up a set of stairs to a balcony high above. On the deck, a red-haired young man he recognized as Leonidas Herrick fought a trainee with a staff. The other man had a brutal, forceful style, one that was wholly unsuited to Leonidas’s purely defensive movements. In a few more blows, the other man overextended himself, and Leonidas sent the man flying. He dropped his staff distastefully, and stalked off.

“David, what is your assessment?” Mako asked him.

“He is talented,” he guessed.

“He is, but that is not what I am asking your opinion on,” she replied. David looked again as Leo took on another challenger- a more levelheaded competitor. He simply tested Leonidas without committing himself, but his opponent switched tactics. In a flurry of blows, the newcomer suffered defeat, just as the other had.

“He is not trying to make himself compatible,” David realized. “Instead, he is disassembling his foes without giving them the opportunity to synchronize.”

Mako nodded in approval.

“Close. He is trying to fit with them. Instead, he finds them unworthy. To him, they cannot keep up with his pace, and so he discards them.”

David watched with his new knowledge. He could see it clearly now, like a solved riddle. He only wished Mako hadn’t given him the answer.

“And I’m expected to do better,” he said. Mako turned to face him.

“Not just to do better. You have to _be_ better. Leonidas is a fast-paced individual. He can’t stand being held back. I’m not asking you to match him. I’m asking you to keep up. Then you can work on matching up to him.”

***

David turned that piece of information over in his head as he ate a synthetic dinner of gritty chicken and oily potatoes. Despite the lessened load of Kaiju attacks, food shortages were common. The threat of new, burrowing Kaiju had put a damper on farming in the Midwest, especially once a Jaeger had been deployed to counter it.

“In latest news, a new Cat. 5 Kaiju struck North Korea,” the small television announced, showing images of a titanic and horned beast ramming through the ruins of the ‘Wall of Life’. Despite the intervening decades, most of the competed sections of the Wall were intact. _A hooray for human engineering_ , David snarked internally.

Four Jaegers struggled to take on the brute, Tyrant Nexus, Warhead Alpha, Imperial Dominator and Black Nova wrestling with its eight colossal limbs. Tyrant Nexus clambered up the beast’s back, impaling it with a chainsword as Black Nova fired its Plasmacaster into the Kaiju’s gut. It barely reacted before goring Warhead Alpha, ripping a trench through a cityscape. David picked up his tray as Leonidas walked in, sliding into the seat opposite him. Leonidas tore into his chicken, taking no notice of David. It was almost certainly deliberate.

David opened with a classic.

“Hello.”

“Fuck off.”

 _That wasn’t very nice_ , David almost said. Almost.

“I’m David Antrobus,” he added. “I’m to be your partner in Midnight Helios.”

Leonidas looked him over. He had hazel eyes, David noted, not green like the stereotype. He liked them, in a purely aesthetic fashion.

“I don’t think you have what it takes,” Leonidas said. “Have you ever been in real, non-simulated combat? It’s chaotic. You’re fused with your copilot in your head, moving in synch, constantly maintaining equilibrium. If you fail, the Kaiju eats you alive and then kills everyone in the city you’re supposed to be protecting. I need to be able to trust you enough to let you see my deepest, darkest secrets, and you need to do the same. Otherwise, there’s no point in trying.”

David nodded, absorbing that bit of information.

“Tomorrow, can we spar at least? No harm in trying it out,” he said. Leonidas nodded reluctantly.

“I guess,” he said, before returning to his chicken.


End file.
